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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64002	The riches of Gods love unto the vessells of mercy, consistent with his absolute hatred or reprobation of the vessells of wrath, or, An answer unto a book entituled, Gods love unto mankind ... in two bookes, the first being a refutation of the said booke, as it was presented in manuscript by Mr Hord unto Sir Nath. Rich., the second being an examination of certain passages inserted into M. Hords discourse (formerly answered) by an author that conceales his name, but was supposed to be Mr Mason ... / by ... William Twisse ... ; whereunto are annexed two tractates of the same author in answer unto D.H. ... ; together with a vindication of D. Twisse from the exceptions of Mr John Goodwin in his Redemption redeemed, by Henry Jeanes ...	Twisse, William, 1578?-1646.; Jeanes, Henry, 1611-1662. Vindication of Dr. Twisse.; Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing T3423; ESTC R12334	968,546	592

naturall unto us all had Adam continued in his originall integrity But I am content to let that passe only whereas he saith that by such a law the Allmighty law-giver binds himselfe to his creatuees to give them such power as may enable them to keepe that law I think rather if any obligation had place in this case it were rather to maintaine the power already given them than to give it For every law-giver rather presupposeth ability of obedience in them to whom he gives a law then first gives a law and then gives ability to performe obedience thereunto And certainly God first created man after his owne image before he gave him any law to be a rule of his obedience unto his creatour So I take the multiplying vertue was given to his creatures in their creation before he said encrease and multiply In the curing of the lame man his word indeed was a word of power like as when he said let there be light and there was light For though it goe under the forme of a command yet it was not so properly a command which is to command obedience as the going forth of vertuous efficacy to create like as that also Ezek. 37. O ye dry bones heare the voyce of the Lord. And undoubtedly the strength of obedience given unto Adam preceded Gods command for his abstaining from the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden He had in his creation given him posse non cadere not non posse cadere the event manifested as much and it is as true according to the same Austin that God gave him posse stare si vellet not velle quod potuit But that God is bound to restore any such power unto mankind which they have wilfully lost is boldly avouched but let us consider how Scholastically it is proved 1. The first reason hereof is because God hath vouchsafed to enter into a new Covenant of Peace with men when he needed not To this I answer that God hath entred into a new Covenant with men is an indefinite proposition as touching the persons included in this Covenant and being not in a necessary matter but contingent this Covenant proceeding meerely from the good pleasure of God it hath no more force than to signify that God hath vouchsafed to enter into a new Covenant of peace with some men which we wilingly grant but not with all neither doth this proposition enforce any such meaning And that God hath not entred into a new Covenant with all I prove by these reasons 1. As many as are under the Covenant of grace sinne shall have no dominion over them Rom. 6. 14. Sinne shall not have the dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace But sinne hath the dominion over too many even over the most part of the world as we find by lamentable experience therefore too many even the most part of the World are not comprised under the Covenant of grace 2. The covenant of Grace doth covenant on Gods part not only to give salvation upon condition of faith and repentance but for Christs sake to renew mens natures also and to give them faith and repentance As appears by diverse passages of Scripture Jer. 31. 31. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah v. 32. Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt the which my Covenant they brake though I was a Father unto them But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your bodies and will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and doe them Ezek. 20. 23. I will surely rule you with a mighty hand c. 37. And will cause you to passe under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant Isai 57. 18. I have seen his waies and will heale him Hos 14. 5. I will heale their rebellions I will love them freely And that faith it selfe and repentance is the gift of God who hath taken upon him by his covenant of grace to be our Lord and our God to sanctify us is manifest by diverse pregnant passages of holy Scriptures 2. I come to his second reason And in that Covenant he requires obedience at mens hands even at theirs that perish God in his covenant of Grace requires obedience unto salvation but of his free grace undertakes to regenerate them and work them to obedience but how Agreeable unto their rationall natures that is by admonition instruction exhortation that is to work faith and repentance by exhorting and perswading them unto repentance And because this he performes by his Ministers to whom he hath not revealed who they are whom he hath chosen therefore he commands them to Preach indifferently unto all perswade all exhort all unto faith and repentance whereof also he makes this use even towards reprobates that whereas they are naturally confident of their ability to doe as much as any other and as Austin saith dicere solet humana superbia si scissem fecissem The Lord by his Ministry takes from them this excuse so that unto all that heare is this truth delivered whosoever believeth and repenteth shall be saved and thereupon every one is exhorted in the name of the Lord to believe and repent But God resolveth to worke faith and repentance in none but those whom he hath chosen according to that Acts 13. 48. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life And withall the Doctrine delivered in the Gospell is such and so confirmed as may justly make them inexcusable that doe not believe when it shall appeare that many a vile legend they are apt to believe and in the mean time despise Gods holy Oracles by divine Authority many waies confirmed unto them 3. It is most true eternall life is promised to every on that obeyeth and keeps Covenant with God but God over and above worketh some unto obedience unto faith and repentance bestowing these gratious giftes on them even on whom he will when he hardeneth others even whom he will Rom. 9. 18. 4. He punisheth the disobedient with eternall death true but acording unto what Covenant Not according unto the Covenant of grace that is only a Covenant for Salvation but according unto the Covenant of the law the Covenant of works Whereas herehence this Author inferres that the most free God

be as ready to worke it in themselves 3. And now I come to this Authors third Topick place of consolation drawn from the universality of the Covenant of grace Now this is as strange as any of the former or rather much more and when the Covenant of grace is so much enlarged we have cause to feare that it is confounded with the Covenant of Workes And indeed if it were true as some of this sect professe namely that there is an universall grace given to al for the enlivening of their wills wherby they are enabled to will any spirituall good whereunto they shall be excited and to believe if they will and from the love of temporall things to convert themselves to the keeping of Gods Commandements if they will I see no reason but that the Law is able to give life though the Apostle supposeth the contrary and the way is as open unto man for justification by the workes of the Law as it was unto Adam in the state of innocency And if the Covenant of grace be universall and ever was for that I take to be this Authours meaning then God was no more the God of Abraham and of his seed then of all the World nether was the people of Israel more the Lords portion then any other Nation of the World yet Moses was sent unto Pharaoh in their behalfe with this Message Thus sayth the Lord Israell is my sonne my first borne wherefore I say unto thee Let my sonne goe that he may serve mee if thou refuse to let him goe Behold I will slay thy sonne even thy first borne Ex 4. 22 23. Thus God accounts them albeit they were miserably corrupted with Idolatry as it appeares Ez 20. 6. In the day that I lift up my hand upon them to bring them forth of the Land of Egypt 7. Then sayd I unto them Let every one cast a way the abominations of his eies and defile not your selves with the Idolls of Egypt for I am the Lord your God 8. But they rebelled against me and would not heare me for none cast away the abominations of their eyes neither did they forsake the Idolls of Egypt then I thought to poure out mine Indignation upon them and to accomplish my wrath against them in the midst of the Land of Egypt 9. But I had respect unto my name that it should not be polluted of the Heathen So he proceded in despite of their sinnes to carry them out of the Land of Egypt and brought them into the wildernesse and gave them Statutes and Judgments and his Sabaths v 10 11 12. But they rebelled against him in the Wildernesse whereupon he thought againe to poure out his indignation upon them in the Wildernesse to consume them v. 13. But he had respect unto his name v. 14. amd his eie spared them and would not destroy them v. 17. And againe when their Children provoked him by rebelling against him whereupon he thought of powring out his Indignation upon them v. 21. Neverthelesse he withdrew his hand and had respect unto his name v. 22. Then as touching the generation of that present time he professeth he will rule them with a mighty hand v. 33. And the issue thereof is no worse then this I will cause you to passe under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant v. 37 And againe marke with what a gratious promise he concludes v. 43. There shall ye remember your wayes and all the workes wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall judge yourselves worthy to be cast of for all your evills which you have committed 44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have respect unto you for my names sake and not after your wicked waies nor according to your corrupt worke O yee house of Israel saith the Lord God Here is the peculiar fruit of the Covenant of grace to master their iniquities to bring them unto repentance and to deliver them from the dominion of sinne and Satan If God performe this Grace to all and every one throughout the World then is the Covenant of grace universall and all and every one are under it but if there be few very few over whom sinne hath not the dominion then certainly very few are under the Covenant of grace For the Apostle plainly signifyeth this to be the fruit of the Covenant of grace where he saith Sinne shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under grace Rom 6. 14. And the like we have Heb. 8. 8. I will make with the House of Judah a new Testament 9. Not like the Testament that I made with their fathers in the day that I tooke them by the hands to lead them out of the Land of Egypt For they continued not in my Testament and I regarded them not saith the Lord. 10. For this is the Testament that I will make with the House of Israell after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Lawes in their mind and in their heart I will write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them 12. For I will be mercyfull unto their unrighteousnesse and I will remember their sinnes and their iniquities no more According to this Covnant proceed those gratious promises whereof the Scriptures are full I have seen his wayes and I will heale them Es 57. 18. I will heale their rebellions Hos 14. 5. The Lord will subdue our iniquities Mich. 7. I will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your children to love me with all your heart and with all your soule Deut 30. 6. I am the Lord your God which sanctify you c And therefore these comforts which here are so much magnified as only and fully sufficient for the releeving of an afflicted soul in the hour of temptation are but so many lies to speake in the Prophets phrase that this Author holds in his right hand and if through the illusions of Satan he take hold of them they may cast him into a dreame like unto the dreame of an hungry man who eateth and drinketh and maketh merry but when he awaketh his soule is empty For all these comforts so magnificently set forth have no force save in case a man believe them now if a man believeth our doctrine can assure him of Everlasting Life and so of his election which the Arminian cannot For we teach that which our Saviour hath taught us He that believeth in the Son hath Everlasting Life and he that obayeth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth upon him But as for the performing of faith they leave that unto man together with Gods concurrence And in like sort for the maintenance of their faith they teach a man to put

most comfortable course and sets forth the danger of the other in farre more emphaticall manner then Melancthon doth and therewithall discovereth the true Balme of Gilead wherein it consists in the same manner that Melancthon doth and more fully but it served not this Authors turne to represent Calvin thus discoursing though he could not be ignorant there of if himselfe read the place which he alleadgeth out of Calvin and tooke it not upon trust at anothers hand By the way I observe he makes the universality of the promise mentioned by Melancthon all one with the universality of the Covenant of grace mentioned by him As if the Covenant of grace consisted only in this Whosoever believes shall be saved and accordingly you may guesse of his meaning as touching the universality of Christs death namely that the benefit thereof shall redound to all that believe as good as in plaine termes to professe that Christ dyed not to procure and merit faith for us which the Remonstrants doe now adaies openly professe but I doe not find that our Arminians hitherto dare to concurre with them therein And in like manner the universality of Gods love is to be understood namely of willing salvation to as many as believe not of willing grace unto them at least not of any meaning to bestow faith and repentance upon them Yet not any will yet shew themselves so ingenuous as to confesse in plain termes that God gives not faith and repentance to any man but leaves that to be wrought by the power of their wills pretending that God hath enabled all men with a power to believe And indeed if faith and repentance be a gift and speciall gift of God it is strange that God should bestow them upon us extra Christum not for Christ sake And whence it followeth that those gratious promises of circumcising our hearts of sanctifying us of writing his law in our mind and inward parts and his feare in our hearts never to depart from him of healing our wayes our backslidings our rebellions of taking away the stony heart out of our bowels and giving us a heart of flesh and causing us to walke in his statutes and keepe his judgements and doe them are nothing belonging to the Covenant of grace in this Authors judicious consideration And to conclude if all men be under the Covenant of grace what force or substance at all is there in that promise which God makes unto his people of Israell namely that he will cause them to passe under the rodde and bring them unto the bond of the Covenant As also in that Ezek. 16. 60. I will remember my Covenant made with thee in the dayes of thy youth and I will confirme unto thee an everlasting Covenant 61. Then shalt thou remember thy wayes and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters both thy elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for Daughters but not by thy Covenant 62. And I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. I come to the consideration of the reasons why these grounds are pretended to be able to healpe in such a case 1. Because they are directly contradictory to the temptation a will to save all a givinig of Christ to death for all and an offer of grace to all cannot possibly stand with an absolute anticedent will and intent of casting a way the greatest part of mankind or indeed any one man in the world To this I answer 1. Though they be contradictory to the temptation yet if they carry manifest evidence of notorious untruths in their foreheads delivered as they are without explication what true comfort shall an afflicted soule receive therehence when by embracing them he shall but hould a lye in his right hand For doe not these comforters themselves acknowledge that God hath from everlasting decreed the damnation of the greatest part of men Yet they would have a poore afflicted soule believe that notwithstanding this he wills the salvation of all even of them whom he hath appointed unto wrath it is the Apostles phrase 1 Thess 5. 9. To endeavour to perswade them of this what is it but to make a sickly creature to feed on fire or digest Iron as if that could ever turne into good nourishment In like sort to perswade him that Christ hath made satisfaction for all the sins of al mē merited salvatiō for all every one when notwithstanding Christs merits of their salvation the greatest part of the world shall not be saved And notwithstanding Christs satisfaction for their sinne they must be put to satisfy for them that by suffering the torments of hell fire that for ever 2. Let these points be explicated then no comfort at all will appeare therehence to an afflicted soule in some case As for example when they shall understand that Gods love tends only to the saving of them in case they believe repent mortify the deeds of the flesh persevere in such like gracious courses unto death alas what comfort is this to a sick soule when he feeles in himselfe no power to believe no power to repent no power to any spirituall good contrary wise prone to evill either not taking delight in Gods Word or nothing profiting by it Will it suffice to out face them herein tell thē they have power to believe if they will to repent if they will to mortify the deeds of the flesh if they will to crucify the affections lusts if they will yea to have victory over the world if they will and to quench all the fiery darts of the Devill if they will And withall that their wills are enlivened to will any of all these yea to will all these and any other spirituall good whereunto they shall be excited Whereas the Scripture teacheth us that men are dead in sinne before the time of their effectuall calling and that such was the condition of the Ephesians before the Gospell was Preached to them and they converted by it and that till they embrace the Gospell all men are led captive by the Divell to doe his will 3. What poore comfort is this to perswade a man that he is no absolute Reprobate when upon the same grounds namely that the number of Reprobates is farre greater even an hundred for one then the number of Gods elect he may still be perplexed with doubts and feares yea and with as strong an apprehension that he is a Reprobate And amongst all the examples that I have lighted upon of desperation upon this ground they have not proceeded according to this distinction of reprobats absolute or not absolute but simply upon an apprehension that they were Reprobates that not upon the consideration of the small number of Gods elect and the vast number of Reprobates but upon the conscience of some sinne or other which they conceived to be unpardonable a sinne unto death a sinne against

thereof and he gives instance in such a necessity as whereby we say It most needs be that such a thing come to passe as no way prejudiciall to man's liberty And Arminius confesseth that upon supposition of God's decree it must needs be that the Souldiers should abstaine from the breaking of Christ's bones yet I nothing doubt but this action was as as freely performed by them as any other For albeit a thing must needs come to passe which God hath decreed to come to passe yet it is indifferent to come to passe necessarily or freely which also God determines according to the nature of the things themselves namely that necessary things shall come to passe necessarily and contingent things contingently And to this purpose he hath prepared different Agents as Aquinas observeth some necessary working necessarily some contingent working contingently 4. Still this Author harpes upon the same string imputing unto us that we make the whole Circle af a man's life a mere destiny his meaning is that we take away all liberty which is most untrue As for destiny it is well knowne as before I have shewed that this was the usuall crimination which the Pelagians cast upon the doctrine of St. Austin and that because he maintained that grace was not given according unto man's workes And what was Austin's answer hereunto I have shewed before Si cui voluntatem omnipotentis Dei Fati nomine placet nuncupari profanas verborum novitates evitamus sed de verbis contendere non amamus If men please to call the will of Almighty God by the name of destiny we avoid profane novelties of words but we doe not love to wrangle about words For God to worke us to faith to repentance to every good worke yea to the very will and the deed and that according to his good pleasure for which we have expresse Scripture both in the old and new Testament as earst I shewed absolutely to decree this is to make the whole circle of man's like as touching good courses but a mere destiny if we believe this Divine whereas if this be decreed to be done conditionally then grace must be conferred according to works which is as true Pelagianisme as ever dropt from the mouth of Pelagius which himselfe was sōetimes driven torenounce yet this Pelagianisme is the only true divinity if we believe this Author Againe if non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens fieri velit Not any thing cōes to passe unlesse God Almighty will have it come to passe whether good or evill which was sometimes delivered by Austin and of late professed by the Church of Ireland in the dayes of King James this is to make the whole Circle of man's life a mere Destiny if this Author be of any credit so farre as to make his words to be received as Oracles yet God's word is expresse from the unanimous consent of the Apostles that both Herod Pontius-Pilate wih the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together against the holy Son of God to do what God's hand God's counsell had before determined to be done Yet were they gathered together to doe such acts as more facinorous were never known to be done since the world beganne And if we believe this Author all this came to passe by meere destiny And if this be to come to passe by meere destiny why should we not believe it Have we better or more compleate testimony for ought throughout the whole booke of God then for this All things that come to passe must needs be the issues of the divine decree not only such things as come to passe necessarily by necessary Agents working necessarily but even such things also as come to passe freely by free agents working contingently and freely as Aquinas hath proved and Austin and the Church of Ireland acknowledged and the word of God hath justified and cleare reason demonstrated for as much as otherwise no future thing could be foreknowne by God from everlasting For nothing can be from everlasting knowne by God as future unlesse from everlasting it were future But without the decree of God passing upon it no contingent thing can passe out of the condition of a thing merely possible such as it is in it's own nature into the conditiō of a thing future So that whosoever denies God's decree to passe upon every thing that comes to passe throughout the world must therewithall deny the foreknowledge thereof in the mind of God Let but this Authour avoid this one argument if he can but he will never answer it while his head is hot●● conceive I have had sufficient experience of his strength already this way and of the shamefull issue of his adventure therein He that sayd Non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens fieri velit Not any thing comes to passe unlesse the Almighty will have it come to passe sayd also that God so workes in every creature as without all prejudice to their own motions And when the Apostle said that In God we move his meaning was not that the creature did nothing or moved not at all All that followeth is of the same stampe a fardell of unshamefast untruthes Belike when God saith I will cause them to walke in my statutes and to doe them God caused them to doe just nothing In like manner when the holy Prophet expostulates with God in the person of the Church after this manner Lord why hast thou caused us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts against thy feare the meaning is why hast thou caused us to doe just nothing In like manner when God restraines offences he doth it not by his lawes When he promotes vertue he doth it not by rewards when he converts sinners he doth it not by sermons when thousands were converted in one day it was not by the ministry of Peter and his fellow Apostles This Authours meaning seemes to be that unlesse man converts himselfe it is not done by sermons But see how he overlasheth whē carrying the matter so as if God's decree necessitated and overruled all by our opinion yet most absurdly he exempts from this divine decree man's endeavours And who seeth not that to overrule is to carry the reasonable creature on to doe contrary to his own will and judgment For unlesse he doth tosse strenuouslly he can prevaile nothing with any sober and indifferent Reader In like sort to necessitate denotes such a motion whereby the creature is carried to doe a thing necessailry but this is not Bradwardines opinion who alone amongst Schoole-Divines that I know useth this phrase of necessitating For he saith that God necessitates the creature to his free act this necessity is but modall according to that expression of Austin necesse est ut aliquid fiat which Austin confessed 1200 years agoe to be no impeachment to man's liberty But because that phrase Necessitating is not only of an harsh sound apt to be taken in a quite contrary